The UNimportance of crankbait details

[Cgolf]

In the past I have found a big difference in different cranks and what the fish will hit. There are times they will crush anything, but I had my eyes opened when an xcalibur xcs 200 Sb was the hot bait and man that thing plows water. After two cold fronts I couldn’t buy a bite on the xcalibur SB and switched to a much more subtle Bandit 100 and picked up 16 bass in a short amount of time. This really surprised me because I didn’t think it would matter that much, but taught me a lesson for sure especially when dealing with cold fronts which are very common in N WI. 

[papajoe222]

23 hours ago, scaleface said:

What small bodied cranks do you get to go that deep ?

There are a number of off the shelf baits that'll run 15+ft., I'm talking body size here, not overall size. The bill is actually longer than the body on a couple that I have.

I don't use deep diving cranks much anymore, but I still fish the depths with baits like a Bandit , or a Norman FatBoy. I use a pencil style weight with a wire that extends down from the weight and rig it like a C-rig. I keep the leader around 2ft. long and work it slowly when I feel the wire start bumping rocks, or when it transitions from hard to soft bottom. It takes some practice to cast any distance, but you can troll it, too.

[WRB]

Norman DD 22 isn't a big lure, Bagley DB3 dregde is a sinking deep diviier that is about the same size as the DD 22 and runs 20' deep.

Tom

[Preytorien]

I'm a believer, by circumstance, that only a few crankbaits are needed. As I'm mostly a bankwalker, I only have so much space to carry in my bag. That said, while I have a couple bright colors for muddy water, the other 3 I use most of the time, with great luck, are flashy - two gold and one silver. Those seem to cover all the bases for me. 

[deadadrift89]

I believe some days fish activity is so high that it doesn't matter at all, but some days they do want a certain action or size. When I first started fishing with a new partner we went to a local lake and started working a large flat adjacent to creek channel. He was using a Poe's 300 and me a Bomber Fat Free shad both chartreuse w/blue back. Both of us side by side and running baits with same steady retrieve plowing bottom the whole time on 6.4:1 reels. He landed 3 fish in about 30min and me zero. After his third fish he looked at me smiling and handed me a Poe 300 and said don't be stubborn? I proceeded to catch several bass after that on same flat. I do agree I have way way too many crankbaits though?